The premise behind the RepRap project is to build a machine that can reproduce itself. While it's not quite able to accomplish that task entirely, it can produce a great many of its own parts.

That's exactly what's going on at the University of Washington, where they seem to have set up a "RepRap Breeding Center". So far a team of two students have produced three working RepRap Mendel units within one class term. From Open3DP:

In a post quarter meeting, we predict that we could fabricate about one Mendel a week with a slightly larger team of players. We coined the concept of our lab becoming a “Rep Rap Breeding Center”.

It seems that RepRaps and in particular the Mendel version, have gone viral. What might the population of RepRaps be today?

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has been writing Fabbaloo posts since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!

Fabbaloo is a daily online publication focusing on the 3D print and additive manufacturing industries. We provide deeper analysis of developments in current and future technologies as well as corporate matters. If there’s something happening in 3D technologies, especially FDM, SLA, SLS and Stereolithography, we’ll have an opinion about it.